50 Albums of the Decade
November 2, 2009
(photo by dcdead)
I told myself I wasn’t going to do a decades album list. I mean how can you really rank all your favorite albums over a period of ten years that isn’t even completed yet? Over the last couple of months though, I found myself slowly beginning to compile a list of my albums from the 00’s that I loved and I then I began chiseling the list down to around 50 albums. I guess my love for making lists got in the way of the logic and reasoning I had for not making a list. Also since, I started this blog around the middle of the decade I thought only fair that I share this list to acknowledge those great albums that I wasn’t around to write about or put into a fancy EOY list.
A few words of about this list, firstly, these are my personal favorites of the decade and not the end-all be-all of decade-end lists. I realize that some genres (ahem, hip hop) are being woefully underrepresented because of this. Secondably, I would have liked to do full-scale reviews for each album but life kept getting in the way so instead for each album I’ve linked reviews that I feel capture the spirit of the album (click the album cover to go to there). Scroll all the way down to see some albums that “just missed” and some per-year stats (if you want to know which year is best, it’s between ‘02 and ‘05). So without any further ado, here’s the top 50 albums of the decade according to me. Feel free to dispute or agree with my choices in the comments. Enjoy!
music for kids who can’t read good presents: 50 Albums Of The Decade
Key track: “Beautiful Dreamer”
Key track: “Two Weeks”
Key track: “Postcards in Italy”
Key track: “Hotel Yorba”
Key track: “Consolation Prizes”
Follow the jump to see the rest!
Key Track: “Yoshimi Battle the Pink Robots, Pt. 1″
Key Track: “The Funeral”
Key Track: “All My Friends”
Key Track: “Bucky Done Gun”
Key Track: “Such Great Heights”
Key Track: “Bodysnatchers”
Key Track: “The Way We Get By”
Key Track: “Lover’s Day”
Key Track: “Spectacular Views”
Key Track: “Aerodynamic”
Key Track: “Ageless Beauty”
Key Track: “The Crane Wife 1 & 2″
Key Track: “Untitled 8 (popplagia)”
Key Track: “Flightless Bird, American Mouth”
Key Track: “NYC”
Key Track: “I’ll Believe In Anything”
Key Track: “Don’t Make Love So Hard”
Key Track: “My Girls”
Key Track: “Everything Reminds Me Of Her”
Key Track: “White Winter Hymnal”
Key Track: “If You Find Yourself Caught In Love”
Key Track: “Know Your Onion”
Key Track: “For The Widows In Paradise, For The Fatherless In Ypsilanti”
Key Track: “Shut Up I Am Dreaming Of Places Where Lovers Have Wings”
Key Track: “You Can Have It All”
Key Track: “Lysergic Bliss”
Key Track: “Letter From An Occupant”
Key Track: “Sunset Soon Forgotten”
Key Track: “No Children”
Key Track: “Take Your Medicine”
Key Track: “Constructive Summer”
Key Track: “Cause = Time”
Key Track: “Finer Feelings”
Key Track: “He Woke Me Up Again”
Key Track: “Dress Up In Me”
Key Track: “Lisztomania”
Key Track: “The Past Is A Grotesque Animal”
Key Track: “Idioteque”
Key Track: “Tables and Chairs”
Key Track: “How a Resurrection Really Feels”
Key Track: “Vidrar Vel Til Loftárása”
Key Track: “Mr. November”
Key Track: “Casimir Pulaski Day”
Key Track: “Jesus Etc.”
Key Track: “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)”
Just Missed:
Jens Lekman – You’re So Silent Jens
Kanye West – The College Dropout
Okkervil River – Black Sheep Boy
The Mountain Goats – Sunset Tree
Death Cab for Cutie – The Photo Album
The Hold Steady – Boys and Girls in America
Arcade Fire – Neon Bible
Muse – Origin of Symmetry
Bright Eyes – Lifted or The Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground
The National – Boxer
By Year:
2000 (5 Albums, Highest Placing: #5)
2001 (3 Albums, Highest Placing: #24)
2002 (8 Albums, Highest Placing: #2)
2003 (4 Albums, Highest Placing: #14)
2004 (4 Albums, Highest Placing: #1)
2005 (8 Albums, Highest Placing: #3)
2006 (5 Albums, Highest Placing: #11)
2007 (8 Albums, Highest Placing: #9)
2008 (3 Albums, Highest Placing: #15)
2009 (3 Albums, Highest Placing: #10)
![[del.icio.us]](http://farm1.static.flickr.com/105/272216537_6bdbc1edb7.jpg?v=0){kind=small}
Tags: Andrew Bird, Animal Collective, Arcade Fire, Band of Horses, Beirut, Belle & Sebastian, Broken Social Scene, Cloud Cult, Daft Punk, Elliott Smith, Fleet Foxes, Grizzly Bear, Interpol, Iron & Wine, LCD Soundsystem, M.I.A., Mates of State, Of Montreal, Phoenix, Radiohead, Rilo Kiley, Sigur Ros, Spoon, Stars, Sufjan Stevens, Sunset Rubdown, The Decemberists, The Flaming Lips, The Good Life, The Hold Steady, The Mountain Goats, The National, The New Pornographers, The Postal Service, The Shins, The White Stripes, TV on the Radio, Wilco, Wolf Parade, Yo La Tengo
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I absolutly love it!
content rss
November 2nd, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Two things: the fact that Paste posted their 50 top albums of the decade today and we have the EXACT SAME ALBUMS in our top three was totally unplanned. Just sayin’.
Also, click on album no. 34 for perhaps one of the most hilarious reviews you’ll ever read by a tiny mix tapes turned musicforants.com writer.
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:34 pm
Yes, yes, yes!
November 2nd, 2009 at 5:01 pm
dude, freakin’ nice list. i now know how i’m going to round out my music collection. (missing a couple of these!)
November 2nd, 2009 at 7:28 pm
nice list! but i think The Avalanches “Since I Left You” deserves a spot
November 2nd, 2009 at 8:18 pm
I was SO happy to see that Seperation Sunday made the #6 spot… The Hold Steady are my favourite band right now (they have been for the last year+) and SS is my favourite of their albums. Nice to see they’re getting the love they deserve <3
November 2nd, 2009 at 8:23 pm
there is absolutely no hip-hop on here, aside from Kanye West under “Just Missed”
fail
November 2nd, 2009 at 8:25 pm
Your list is so much better than Pitchfork’s. I probably would have switched out Oh Inverted World for Chutes Too Narrow, and Shut Up I’m Dreaming, for Random Spirit Lover, but otherwise great list, yay for originality.
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:23 pm
Nice list…I’ve got some catching up to do. I’ve only listened to like half those albums!
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:24 pm
Guess who has all of those albums? Go on, guess.
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:25 pm
Wassim, read second paragraph, second sentence. Also, M.I.A. is #42.
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:26 pm
psht, MIA doesn’t count
you could’ve at least included Madvillain!
but ok
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:27 pm
MIA totally counts. i listen to hip hop more on a song-to-song basis then albums now. i think the 90s had a lot more great hip hop albums (black planet, liquid swords, Bizarre Ride II, Things Fall Apart, 36 Chambers, low end theory, etc).
November 2nd, 2009 at 10:07 pm
I will say that it upsets me that the on all the best-of-the-decade lists I’ve seen, no one has included El-P’s Fantastic Damage.
Also, STANKONIA.
November 3rd, 2009 at 1:58 am
Oh man, Taylor
What an undertaking. Congrats on being able to compile the list. But you know, I have some major issues with it. My top ten would look nothing like yours. Difference between writers at one blog is a good thing, ya? I think I have to get a decade list together as a response. It should be … fun.
November 3rd, 2009 at 6:24 am
Nice list,
November 3rd, 2009 at 9:46 am
Stankonia is definitely worthy, but as I was saying the singles connected to me way more than the album. I’ll have to check out fantastic damage, Matt. I just have “i’ll sleep when you’re dead”.
November 3rd, 2009 at 11:09 am
Got some old albums by some artists that I love on there – will totally have to listen to them now.
Postal Service should have been MUCH higher though
November 3rd, 2009 at 3:37 pm
love all the Sam Beam
November 4th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Now, I know this list is based solely on your personal taste, but in this day and age, how does a ‘relevant’ blogger/music critic get away with almost solely digging indie-pop guitar music made by hip white people?
I’m not gonna call you out on being a racist, because that’s a ridiculous assumption to make, but if this list was any whiter it would be in a contest with pretending to like jazz as the whitest fucking thing of all time.
November 4th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
(crickets)
People are so funny. Anonymous people to be exact.
This is a great list, Taylor. Although mine would probably look a little different, making my way towards your #1 pick just reminded why I loved reading your blog so much.
November 4th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
these are his favorite albums, it’s not like he went out and deliberately excluded black artists.
November 4th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
This list shows no insight as to why these are great albums. Instead we’re left with other people’s reviews, which is really the point of this list. It’s just an aggregate of the top albums that all the indie tastemakers have been pushing for the last ten years. Keep drinkin’ that delicious sparks flavored kool-aid.
November 5th, 2009 at 1:18 am
Gorillaz are not on the list.
wat
November 5th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
excellent…I really like where of Montreal is on here…”Hissing Fauna” is generally underrated as an album
November 5th, 2009 at 7:37 pm
Very nice list.
November 6th, 2009 at 7:55 am
Ridiculously. Black Sheep Boy should be in the top ten at least, not, “just missed,” I feel like that was done specifically to piss me off. You just lost all your hot music blog cred.
Why would you pick more than one album by each artists? Does Michigan by Sufjan Stevens deserve a place at all? It was mediocre compared to Illinoise. This list makes it look like you’ve heard of about 15 bands.
November 6th, 2009 at 8:21 am
Your argument doesn’t make any sense. Including the “just missed” section there’s almost 50 artists on this list. And there’s many many people who consider Michigan to be a better album than Illinois, calling it mediocre completely invalidates your opinion.
November 6th, 2009 at 8:55 am
“End of,” lists tend to hurt. I’m not going to attack a music blog I read regularly (2 years), I’m just mad that most of my favourite albums were left out of this.
I said mediocre compared to Illinois, not mediocre in general, there are probably more people who would agree with that.
I really love the inclusion of Cloud Cult though, I also didn’t read the introduction so I assumed this was your list of ultimate ‘2000′ records. Sorry.
November 6th, 2009 at 9:14 am
No hard feelings. It seems like the majority of negative commenters are not reading the intro and misunderstanding the list.
November 7th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
This list is great =D
For all those who say its not, get a life and find something else to bitch about
November 8th, 2009 at 10:14 am
Solid list! I can’t stand people who tear down another person’s opinions. If they think they can do better, they should do it themselves!
November 8th, 2009 at 10:15 pm
I’m surprised that Sunset Rubdown’s Random Spirit Lover wasn’t included, which, if I remember correctly, was your favourite album from that particular year. I think it has some simply spectacular tracks, so I wonder, has it fallen out of favour since?
November 9th, 2009 at 1:30 am
Not gonna lie–I’m a little sad that Vampire Weekend didn’t make this list… Their album really brought new awareness of the indie world to people who generally listen to mainstream music. Not to mention that it’s just fun to listen to.
November 9th, 2009 at 1:31 am
Also, so glad to see Rilo Kiley on there. Also Cloud Cult.
November 9th, 2009 at 2:15 am
hey, decent list, although I’m also surprised that Black Sheep Boy didn’t make the 50.
Also, no Feel Good Ghosts?
Looking more forward to your end of year list, tis always nicer to read why an album is on there
Keep up the good work.
November 9th, 2009 at 3:41 am
Again where are the brits?
Arctic Monkeys, Late of the Pier, Franz Ferdinand, Foals, The Libertines, Los Campesinos?
Sad to see the country so neglected…
Maybe The Strokes? Vampire Weekend?
Otherwise some interesting stuff I would like to check out now
November 9th, 2009 at 8:48 am
@David: Random Spirit Lover was actually #11 on that list. Cloud Cult was my number #1 (although I ranked “Hissing Fauna” and “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga” ahead of it on this list).
Thanks for the nice comments everyone!
November 9th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
nice list bro
November 10th, 2009 at 11:08 am
Arcade Fire ? is that a joke? it is a joke right ? No ? FUCK!
November 10th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
No strokes, or vampire weekend album equates this list to be shite.
November 13th, 2009 at 1:30 am
aren’t opinions amazing?
November 14th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Great list. I still need to get a few of these.
November 18th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
We did our list here – http://therecommender.net
3nr Sufjan Stevens albums in the Top 50 is perhapa a little unfair when there is no place for many others, including Neon Bible. At least you made up with Funeral at number one.
Not sure Arcade Fire have at least 50 places between their two albums if Sufjan has 3 included.
Still it’s a brave list, packed with many amazing albums, so thanks loads.
Mike
UK
November 29th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
Taylor,
As usual, you hit it on the head. Awesome list. So glad you put Arcade Fire first. although think Oh Inverted and Our Endless Numbered Days I think could have been pushed a little closer to the top.
Swear that if we both weren’t married, we would have to run away together, since our music tastes are just about identical. love it hun, thanks so very much…
A few days late my post comes. A bit slack this month due to moving again!!
Cheers
Your Aussie Twin
Natalie
December 1st, 2009 at 2:19 pm
http://americansun.wordpress.com/2009/12/01/12-albums-of-the-decade-2000-2009/
my list
December 7th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
This is a great list. Completely agree with Arcade Fire at No. 1.
I think LCD Soundsystem should be much higher, though and Interpol as well – both great albums. I also think Bjork’s “Vespertine” album should feature too.
December 7th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
good list except for some of the key tracks. bodysnatchers completely kills the mood for me on in ranbows, i think nude’s the best. and vidrar is nowhere near the best on agaetis
December 19th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Yessssss. Satanic in the Panic rules. .
Nice list.
December 26th, 2009 at 9:43 am
Decent list but c’mon, if Funeral is number one where is Neon Bible?
No Springsteen aswell? The Rsing is without doubt worthy of a top ten pace.
TV ON The Radio however is a great call. Overall a passible list, better than the crap given by so called ‘music’ magazines like NME.
January 5th, 2010 at 8:00 pm
No Strokes? I guess this only reflects your personal tastes but still…